Packaging of smoking articles

ABSTRACT

A rigid of smoking articles is made to have improved shelf life and to be resealable. A barrier material is sealed around the rigid pack. The rigid pack has a potential or actual access aperture extending from a top face into a major face. The barrier material has a line of severance or weakening defining a flap, which is in register with the potential or actual access aperture. Over the flap is a layer which overlaps it on each severable side with a portion having permanently-tacky adhesive. A non-adhered pull tab is preferably provided on the layer. To open the pack the user lifts the flap and if necessary the access aperture. After removal of a smoking article the gap in the barrier layer is reclosed and released by the repositioning of the adhesive layer, carrying with it the flap of barrier material. A machine for assembling the pack is also disclosed.

This application is a divisional of Ser. No. 09/554,619 filed Jul. 19,2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,149 which is a 371 of PCT/GB98/03590 filedDec. 2, 1998.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to packaging of smoking articles, and to machinesfor that packaging. For convenience, the smoking articles (cigars,cigarillos, cigarettes, for example) will be referred to as cigarettes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is conventional for cigarette packs, whether soft or rigid, to beoverwrapped with a transparent layer of cellophane or similar material.Though this has some protective properties it does not seriously prolongshelf life, especially in adverse conditions such as those of very highor very low humidity. To gain access to the pack the user tears open anddiscards the transparent layer. EP-A-395249 however shows a transparentoverwrap which is not entirely discarded.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,729, FIGS. 11 and 12, a cuboid cigarette softpack has a flap in the top face which on lifting tears away part of anoverwrap layer. The flap may have permanently tacky adhesive so that itcan be flattened down again onto the top face and reclose, to a certainextent, the hole it made in the barrier layer. Leak paths still exist,and it is not clear how the opening gives access to the contents of thepack.

We have previously proposed, in copending WO-A-9822367 to provide aresealable barrier enclosure for a pack.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a packet of smoking articles comprising arigid cuboid pack having a top face, a bottom face, two side faces andmajor front and back faces, a charge of smoking articles contained insaid rigid pack and a layer of barrier material overwrapping said packto form a sealed enclosure around said pack, wherein the barrier layerincludes a line of weakening defining a flap and an access aperture,said enclosure includes a label applied on said flap, said labelcomprising a permanently tacky portion, which portion, when said labelis in an aperture closure position, surrounds said access aperture toallow resealing of said aperture upon said label being brought to saidclosure position thereof, and said rigid pack includes either apotential access aperture, being a flap defined by a line of weakeningin the material of the pack, or an actual access aperture, being aportion missing from the material of said pack, said potential or actualaperture extending from the top face into one of said major faces ofsaid rigid pack and being generally in registration with said flap ofsaid barrier layer.

The present invention further provides a machine for making a packet asdefined above, which machine includes a feed operable to supply a web ofbarrier material, a cutting station operable to form a line of weakeningdefining a flap and an access aperture in said web, an applicationstation operable to apply a label, comprising a permanently tackyportion, over said flap in such a matter that when said label is in anaperture closure position said tacky portion of said label surroundssaid access aperture, means operable to present a length of thelabel-bearing web as a wall to the top face of a rigid pack containing acharge of smoking articles, drive means operable to transfer said rigidpack transverse to said wall and being further operable to progress saidrigid pack through the location of said wall of barrier material, aknife cutter operable to cut said web to length immediately after saidweb has been impacted by said pack, said rigid pack including either anactual access aperture, being a portion missing from the material of thepack, or a potential access aperture, being a flap defined by a line ofweakening in the material of the pack, which actual or potential accessaperture is generally in registration with the flap of said barrierlayer, and heaters operable to form seals in said web of barriermaterial around said pack to form an enclosure.

A related machine is seen in our co-pending European Application98306328.0 (EPA-0 895 930) where however what is overwrapped is a chargeof smoking articles in an incomplete frame.

The barrier material layer may be, for example, a metallised plastic ora plastic/metal laminate material.

The rigid pack of the present invention may be similar, for example, tothe flip-top or shell and slide type packs.

The packet of the present invention may be inserted into an outer, whichouter may be a rigid flip-top pack.

In this way an efficient, proper, access opening is available but iseffectively hermetically resealable.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a charge of cigarettes;

FIGS. 2-6 show face views of respective carton blanks;

FIGS. 7-10 are perspective views of cartons made up from the blanks andcontaining a charge of cigarettes;

FIG. 11 shows an overwrapped rigid pack;

FIG. 12 shows the pack of FIG. 11 in an outer flip-top carton;

FIGS. 13 and 14 are perspective views of a shell and slide cartoncontaining a charge of cigarettes;

FIG. 15 is a side view of an enclosure-forming machine; and

FIG. 16 is a face view of a labelled barrier material web.

DESCRIPTION OF PARTICULAR EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows a charge of cigarettes 100 assembled in a conventional wayand partly wrapped with a conventional foil/paper laminate 102 overapproximately half of its length only. The foil having good dead foldcharacteristics will retain its form and the coherence of the charge ofcigarettes in subsequent stages in which it is fed onto the sealer bedof a conventional carton erection packer where it is wrapped in aconventional manner with a carton formed from any of the blanks shown inFIGS. 2-6.

The blank in FIG. 2 is essentially conventional for a rigid pack, withfront and rear main panels 201,202 joined by hinge lines to a base panel203 and a lid top panel 204. Between back panel 202 and top lid panel204 is a lid back panel 205 and attached to the lid top panel 204 a lidfront panel 206 with an extension tongue 207.

Side walls of the carton are to be formed by side panels 208 of thefront panel 201 being adhered or heat-sealed outside respective sidepanels 210 of the back panels 202 and side wings 211 of the lid beingadhered or heat-sealed outside side panels 209 of the lid back panel205, at cross-hatched areas shown in panels 209 and 210. End flaps 212and 213 lie in the erected carton inside base and lid top panels 203 and204 respectively, and may be adhered or heat-sealed there. The extensiontongue 207 is normally turned back and glued inside the lid front panel206. Thus we get a rigid container.

Blanks giving greater stiffness in the made-up container are shown inFIGS. 3-6. All of these allow for access to the cigarettes through acentral opening in the lid and front panel, through a resealable barrierlayer.

It will be seen in FIG. 3 that side walls 215 of the rear panel 202 arecontinuous over the whole length of that rear panel, with end tabs 213′being abbreviated compared to tabs 213. This is because in lid top panel204′ cuts 216 define side portions 217 and a flap portion 218. The cuts216 continue into the lid front wall 206′, terminating in uncut pips 219which are joined by U-shaped cut 220 in the material of the flap 206′.FIG. 4 has a continuation 207′ of the front panel, which will overliethe front panel 201.

When these are made up, essentially in the same way as the conventionalblank of FIG. 2 with 208 and 211 adhered or heat-sealed over thecross-hatched area in the side walls 215, flaps 213′ underlie and can beadhered or heat-sealed to side portions 217 of the lid top panel. Thecontinuity of side walls 215 gives greater rigidity to the carton whichhas the appearance of a hinged lid carton but which gives access to thecigarettes by opening the flap 218 in the top lid. This is done afterdepressing the flap defined by cuts 220 and 216 to break the pips at219.

The continuous side walls 215 are particularly useful if it is desiredto use continuous side-sealing platforms during an overwrapprocedure—compare side flaps 209,210 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is similar to FIG. 4 but has a front flap 206″ with no side wingsso that the appearance of a hingeable opening is not conveyed.

FIG. 6 shows a modification of FIG. 5 in which flap 218 is omitted,there being a permanent aperture 221 instead.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show how a pack is made up from the blanks of FIGS. 3 and4 respectively, enclosing a charge as seen in FIG. 1.

In FIG. 7 the side panels 211 and 208, secured together to thecontinuous side flap 215, give the appearance of a flip-top pack.However, access to the cigarettes is gained by breaking the pips 219 andopening the flap portion 218. The pack in FIG. 8 is similar, but showsthe extension 207′ overlapping part of the front panel 201.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show a pack made up from the charge of FIG. 1 andrespectively the blank of FIG. 6 and the blank of FIG. 5.

The carton assembled from the blank of any of FIGS. 2 to 6 is now passedthrough a pre-severed and labelled barrier material seen in FIG. 16, ona machine seen in FIG. 15, both described more fully below. The resultis a resealable rigid pack 225 of FIG. 11, the barrier material 226having been conventionally folded and secured by heat-sealing, such thatits opening 227 resealable by permanently-tacky overlapping boundaryportions of a label 228 overlies the access opening 221 or is adhered orheat sealed to the flap 218 which then opens with it.

FIG. 12 shows how the overwrapped rigid pack of FIG. 11 may if desiredbe further enclosed in a conventional “flip-top” outer container 229which may have an inner frame 230. Before insertion of the overwrappedpack into the outer carton 229 or erection of that outer carton aroundit, a lift tab 231 of the resealable label, free from adhesion orheat-sealing, is lifted so as to present itself to the user when theflip-top lid 232 is opened, as shown in FIG. 12.

FIGS. 13 and 14 show how an otherwise conventional shell and slidecarton 233 can be modified by cutting away part of the top front flap234 in the slide and cutting a U portion 235 out of the shell, and thenoverwrapping as before to yield the pack 236 of FIG. 14, analogous topack 225. If the carton is to be erected on conventional machinery, thecharge should be as in FIG. 1.

As was disclosed in our WO-A-9822367, a hermetically resealable barrierenclosure can be provided by the application of a label 228 (FIG. 16) ona web 226 of barrier material such as a plastics/foil laminate ormetallized film, with permanently tacky adhesive on a margin 237 of thelabel around a potential opening through the barrier, defined by line ofweakening 238. This line of weakening must correspond with the potentialor actual aperture 218,221 in the rigid pack which the web 226 willoverwrap. A foil cut pitch 239 is illustrated. Tab 231 is non-adhesiveand is to assist the eventual user in lifting the label, The labelguides the user when resealing the opening so that the barrier materialre-fills that opening and only a cut line remains as a potential leakpath. This is covered by the label and its permanently tacky adhesiveregion beyond the line effectively completely reseals the enclosure.

The cut pitch is provided by a main knife in the machine of FIG. 15. Areel of foil 401 (preferably laminated foil) carried on a bobbin ismounted on a spindle. The foil is led over two rollers 402 and 403, oneor both of which is held on the end of a pivoted spring loaded arm so asto be of the nature of a dance roller. One of the arms is fitted with abraking arrangement which, in the event of the foil becoming too slackas it is pulled off by pulling rollers, causes the brake to act againstthe spindle to restore the desired level of tension. Other methods oftension control can be used including electrical speed matching of amotor used to drive the reel compared to desired foil velocitydetermined by the pulling rollers.

The foil is led to the pulling rollers 405 via a series of idler rollers404 which guide it clear of obstructions and across a table 406 whichforms a platform for manual or an automatic splicing system (not shown),which is required to join the start of a new reel of foil to the end ofa previous reel.

Should the foil used have a printed pattern on it the foil will have tobe registered correctly to the pattern on the cutting roller 407 whichforms the line of weakening 238 and the main cutting knife 408. Toachieve this, an encoder is used to determine the position of thecutting roller 407. The signal from this is compared to a registrationmark on the foil which is detected before the pulling rollers. Anydeviation from the desired comparison results in the speed of thepulling rollers being increased or decreased at a programmable rate torestore the desired comparison.

To ensure the foil is cut in the right position its length between thecutting roller 407 and the main knife 408 can be adjusted by moving theposition of idler rollers 409 between them.

Soon after the cutting roller the label 228 is applied to the foil 226by a conventional applicator 410. The label overlaps all sides of theline 238 defined by the rotary cutter. Both the tongue defined by theline of weakening or cut and the label pull tag 231 are best arranged topass in the trailing rather than leading direction.

The foil with labels 228 on it is pulled through a further pair of driverollers 411 and guided to the rotary main knife cutter 408 where it iscut to length immediately after it is impacted by a pack driven in thedirection of arrow A. The pack, which continues to be moved forward by apusher, has the ends of the foil lap folded and its sidesenvelope-folded by an arrangement of tuckers and ploughs 414.

From this point on the foil-overwrapped packs are pushed one againstanother through a series of side, top and end heaters which seal thefoil to itself and the foil to tongue shaped “notched” openings in thepack to enable it to be lifted when the label is lifted.

Typically, the side 412 and top heaters 413 may be of the reciprocatingtype as shown or may be belt or tractor heaters.

To enable lap end sealing, the wrapped packs are preferably elevated oneat a time by a reciprocating lifting mechanism 415 to pass in front of areciprocating heater 416. They can then be taken in turn from the top ofthe four high stack to the next process which could be, for example,film overwrapping or card overwrapping. The latter, if required, couldtake the form of a hinge lid box. If so the inner frame in the hinge lidbox would be styled to accommodate the opening of the label in such away that the tab of the label overlapped the inner frame to make itstand up to be easier to get hold of.

Before application to the film or before the final overwrapping step, itmay be desired to fold the pull tab 231 of the label back to enable itseasier opening. If this is required the packs are pushed forward by areciprocating pusher (into the paper) (not shown) and under a vacuumnozzle 417 which lifts the label tab and leads it under a plough (notshown) which it is pushed through by subsequent packs. The plough turnsthe tab right back on itself. The tab is then creased/tacked intoposition as it passes under a heater which presses down on it.

The process and equipment described above can be easily modified toprovide for the manufacture of a resealable shell and slide arrangementof rigid pack.

What is claimed is:
 1. A machine for making a packet of smoking articlesincluding a rigid cuboid pack having a top face, a bottom face, two sidefaces and major front and back faces, with a charge of smoking articlescontained in said rigid pack and a layer of barrier materialoverwrapping said pack to form a sealed enclosure around said pack,wherein said rigid pack includes either an actual pack access aperture,said pack aperture being a portion missing from the material of thepack, or a potential pack access aperture, said potential pack aperturebeing a flap defined by a line of weakening in the material of the pack,said machine comprising: a feed operable to supply a web of the barriermaterial; a cutting station operable to form a line of weakeningdefining a barrier flap and a barrier access aperture in said web ofbarrier material; an application station operable to apply a label, saidlabel including a permanently tacky portion, over said barrier flap insuch a manner that when said label is in an aperture-closure positionsaid tacky portion of said label surrounds said barrier access aperture;means operable to present a length of the label-bearing web of barriermaterial as a wall to the top face of said rigid pack containing acharge of smoking articles; drive means operable to transfer said rigidpack transverse to said wall and being further operable to progress saidrigid pack through the location of said wall of barrier material; aknife cutter operable to cut said web to length immediately after saidweb has been impacted by said pack, wherein said actual or potentialpack access aperture is generally in registration with the barrier flapof said barrier layer; and heaters operable to form seals in said web ofbarrier material around said pack to form an enclosure.
 2. A machineaccording to claim 1, which includes means for pushing up a non-adheredportion of the label to form a pull-tab for the label and flap.
 3. Amachine according to claim 1 wherein the pitch between successive layersand length cuts is adjustable.
 4. A machine according to claim 2 whereinthe pitch between successive layers and length cuts is adjustable.
 5. Amachine for making a packet of smoking articles including a rigid cuboidpack having a top face, a bottom face, two side faces and major frontand back faces, with a charge of smoking articles contained in saidrigid pack and a layer of barrier material overwrapping said pack toform a sealed enclosure around said pack, wherein said rigid packincludes either an actual pack access aperture, said pack aperture beinga portion missing from the material of the pack, or a potential packaccess aperture, said potential pack aperture being a flap defined by aline of weakening in the material of the pack, said machine comprising:a feed operable to supply a web of the barrier material; a cuttingstation operable to form a line of weakening defining a barrier flap anda barrier access aperture in said web of barrier material; anapplication station operable to apply a label, said label including apermanently tacky portion, over said barrier flap in such a manner thatwhen said label is in an aperture-closure position said tacky portion ofsaid label surrounds said barrier access aperture; and means forenclosing the rigid pack with the barrier material so that said actualor potential pack access aperture is generally in registration with thebarrier flap of said barrier layer, whereby a sealed enclosure is formedabout said pack by the barrier layer.
 6. The machine of claim 5 whereinsaid means for enclosing the rigid pack includes means operable topresent a length of the label-bearing web of material as a wall to thetop face of said rigid pack containing a charge of smoking articles. 7.The machine of claim 6 wherein said means for enclosing the rigid packincludes drive means operable to transfer said rigid pack transverse tosaid wall and being further operable to progress said rigid pack throughthe location of said wall of barrier material.
 8. The machine of claim 7wherein said means for enclosing the rigid pack includes a knife cutteroperable to cut said web to length immediately after said web has beenimpacted by said pack.
 9. The machine of claim 8 wherein said means forenclosing the rigid pack includes heaters operable to form seals in saidweb of barrier material around said pack to form heat-sealed seams inthe enclosure.